According to data 36-40% of people in the United States watch anime while roughly 15-20% of people read manga. For those who don’t know what anime is, anime is a type of style of animated movies and series that originate from Japan. They follow all types of different genres like romance, action, slice of life, fantasy, etc. anime is for all ages and are usually adaptations of manga. Speaking of manga, manga are basically the Japanese version of visual novels or comic books. They’re usually black and white and read left to right. Personally, I believe manga is better than anime.
My first reason is that manga is more likely to tell a complete story than anime . Anime shows can be pretty inconsistent. You could find this great anime that you like and be googling when the next session will be only for it to be not announced or not renewed. For example, the third season for an anime called Full Metal Panic was released in 2005, the fourth season of the show wasn’t released until 2018 approximately 18 years after the third season. Unless an anime is really popular there’s a good chance it might not get another season until years later or never, while with manga unless the series isn’t well liked or something happens to the author, we can expect regular intervals of volumes to come out and for it to have an ending.
My second reason is that some anime are poorly adapted from their original manga. It states in an article on Honsama that, “There’s a lot of corner cutting, splicing, changing, or entirely leaving out characters or portions of an arc, for the sake of adapting a manga”(July 12). That’s why it’s called an adaptation. Sometimes it’s done flawlessly and both readers and watchers can enjoy it and appreciate the work the studio put into it, but other times it’s not and it can butcher a good story.
My third reason is that there are many more manga. then there are anime. It states in an article on CBR that, “A particular downside to being an anime fans is the fact that many solid manga series never got an anime at all”(Kenmer Jan 7). This restricts anime watchers greatly to what’s available to see since unless a manga is really popular it most likely won’t get adapted to an anime. There’s also just more manga out in the world than anime. Additionally, manga is a great medium for finding titles that cater to your specific interests.
